This Week In Golf Channel Ratings: LPGA Dislodges The Big Break

Thanks to Son Of The Bronx as always for this week's numbers, which show Golf Channel averaging 90,000 in prime time and 58,000 the rest of the day, up over last week and well up over a year ago (69,000/39,000).

More impressive were the solid numbers for the LPGA Tour's season finale even when it went up against the NFL. Whe the PGA Tour's Mayakoba event was televised live at the same time as football the week before (drawing 116,000 for the final round), the LPGA Tour drew 189,000 for its final round broadcast. That was strong enough to knock off Big Break NFL as the channel's top rated show.

More impressive were the LPGA numbers Saturday (186,000), Friday (167,000) and Thursday (113,000) which all topped the PGA Tour's World Cup from Australia that aired in prime time/late night ET. Note that the LPGA's strong numbers fed some solid ratings for Golf Central pre and postgame shows.

Saturday's World Cup final round telecast was the highest rated, drawing a 111,000.

Comments

[Colin MacGillivray]

What television viewer number counters sometimes forget is that women watch sport. In New Zealand the biggest sports viewing number is for women's netball on a Saturday. And the LPGA tour has teenagers as opposed to our favourite Miguel Angel Jimenez.

[perspective]

1,142,000 viewers equals 1.0 ratings points...... 90,000 viewers means a .07 of a point...when did these numbers become solid ratings?

[unimpressed]

perspective - I posted a comment yesterday about this calling the numbers "abysmal," and the comment disappeared, as will yours and mine, I imagine.

Someone apparently wants us to think these are great numbers - I've seen more people gathered at a dead cat performance...

[unimpressed]

Let me expand a little on my previous comment, if I am allowed:

I am commenting at this site, which means I play and watch and obviously read about golf. As a past-time, I will play golf for pleasure whatever happens on the corporate and pro side. That said...

I hardly think it is beneficial for the industry to be whistling past the graveyard on this issue - viewership is woeful, and participation is declining. You're not going to save anything by pretending things are great.

But that's just being pragmatic. The numbers are symptomatic of something. Golf rising? Hardly.

[digsouth]

I agree that the numbers are shockingly low. The ad rates must be low enough for a lemonade stand to be able to do an infomercial, because I cannot fathom why a car company would use a shotgun approach ad to a hundred thousand people, when for the same money they could do a targeted ad campaign to real potential customers. It also explains why we are seeing 4 year old commercials instead of new production( I mean does having a bad caddy (DLIII) really send the correct message hat the audio presents? I would have chunked those ads before they left the board room.